Number One (and Only)

Pansy Eyes is apparently the only known survivor from a series that stumbled right out of the gate. It is number 1 of the Magazine of Select Novels and contains “four novels complete in this number.” Published before the International Copyright Act of 1891, it appears the business model of this failed series was to pilfer stories from British authors. Three of the titles were written by Charlotte Mary Brame, a prolific English author, and had first been published in cheap story papers in London between 1870. So the fledgling Magazine of Select Novels was grabbing fresh, if pirated, content. Still it appears to have not been enough to keep it going beyond the first number!